Freight-car door



Jan. 29, 1924. 1,482,307 K. R. KOSKINEN FRE IGI-1T CAR DOOR Filed Jan. 5, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet l A TTUR/VEVS Jan. 29, 1924. 1,4813? K. R. KOSKINEN FREIGHT CAR DOOR A TTOHIVEYS Patented lJan. 29, 1924.

murenv STATES hmmm KUSTA RUPERT KOSKINEN, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

FREIGHT-CAR DOOR.

Application led January 5, 1923. Serial No. 610,863.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that-1, KUsTA RUPERT Kos- KINEN, a citizen of Finland, and a resident of the city of NewYork, borough of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and lState of New York, have invented a'new and Improved F reight-Car Door, ofwhich the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to Vfreight-car doors, i

and more particularly aims to provide a new and improved door and doorway construction particularly adapted for use in loading and unloading grain or the like or any commodity in loose bulk and composed of la number of small and generally perishable elements which must be carefully and completely housed during transport andthe handling of which has heretofore presented seriousV diiiiculties of vloading and unloadin due to the instability and excessive weight of the mass.

It willthus be understood A that the in-` vention is particularly valuable in connection with the shi lng of grain, as the `perishability, insta ility and' weight of a mass of suchcommodity renders thesame one of the most troublesome and dicult kind of freight to handle r According 'to the present invention, a solution for this very aggravating problem is offered in the way o a construction including essentially a sliding door (preferably-involving the combination of a main door structure to be removed for unloading and a minor door formin a part of the main door structure and use for loading with the main door locked securely in ,closed position), a recessed s doorway for receiving the main door, vand a rfovelsuspension for such door to permit the4 latter to be made of massive size and construction and yet easily swung into or out of its doorway and movedtoward or away from the door-` way in a substantiall verticalplane; the .new combination also aving preferably associated therewith simple yet reliable means for clamping and locking the door closed, and additional means for holding the door temporarily, and during sliding of the same in a substantially vertical plane away from the doorway, against certam of the ossible adjustments and movements of the oor.

The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawing showing'as one example of the invention a preferred embodiment thereof.

In this drawing: l

Fig; 1 is a side elevation of a part of a freig t-car, withthe new main door closed;

F 1g. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1, but showlng such door opened and slid beyond lts doorway;

F g. 3 is a vertical section on an` enlarged scale taken through door and doorway at about the line 3-3 in Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 but with the main door in a` position intermediate that Vshown in Figs. 1 and 2;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary view, being a horizontal section taken on line 5--5 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged detail view, showing in top plan an end portionof the door susnding sliding carriage.

imilar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings. Referring to Figs. A1 .and 2, the'wall 6 may be the side wall of afreight-car which somewhere along its length is provided with a recessed doorway as indicated at 7 in Fig. 2,'so as to present theequivalents ofy jambs and a still on which may be hingedly mounted as indicated a pair of outwardly opening strips 8 and a third outwardly opening strip 9. The main door is indicated at 10 and when disposed as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, so that its rear face abuts against the frame structure 11, the two side clamping strips 8 may be swung in from the positions shownin Figs. 2 and4 to the positions shown in Figs. 1 and 3, to temporarily clamp the main door in place, and thereupon the hinged strip 9'at the sill of the doorway may be swung in against the' outer lowermost portion of the door, thus further to clam the door tightly and rigidly in place and to lock the hinged strips 8 in their own clamping positions. To facilitate quick openingV and closing of these hinged strips, the side strips 8 carry suitable handles 8a and the bottom strip 9 carries a suitable handle 9a which is desirably hingedly mounted as indicated;

` The novel suspension means for the door forming Aone of the very important features of the present invention includes here an elevated track 12, and a rockable and slidable carriage onthe' track. Such carriage includes a pair of rollers 13 mounted as hereinafter -described. In order. to permit the rockmg movementl just described as well as a sliding movement of said carriage,`

rollers 13 are crownedl as indicated in Figs. 3 and 4 and track 12 is of circular crosssection as illust-rated.' y

'Saidsuspension means further includes a pair of depending arms 16, of inverted L- shape as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, and carrying at their lower ends eyes 17 loosely engaging perpendicularly arranged eyes 18 carried rigidl by the exterior of the door at points wel below the top of the door; and not only are the inner ends of the .upper horizontal lengths of the arms swiveled in the end portions of the carriage 15-as shown best in Fig. 6, and as will be described in a moment,to permit said arms to swingv from side to side as viewed in Fig. 1, but such end portions of the carriage are slightly relatively movable 'because each is a separate tubular member as illustrated .in Fig. 1 and both are interconnected solelyby means of a bar 19 which they house and which bar is joined at opposite ends to the carriage portions by cross pins 20 riveted to the carriage portions but passing loosely through holes in the bar. As just mentioned, the upper horizontal length of each arm 16 is swivel-mounted at its inner end on carriage 15; this mounting being, as shown in Fig. 6, as follows: The inner end of such length of the arm is neduced as at 16l and received loosely in the journal-bore cut axially of the transverse terminal sleeve 15 at its end of the carriage. Roller 13, a collar 14, 'and a washer 14, are all secured in place as shown, by a stud 13'l threaded at its inner end into the inner end of reduced portion16a of arm 16.

The suspension means just described permits the door 10, despite its great weight and bulk (as is necessary for strength), and the design of such door and the doorway whereby the door must be tightly and snugly fitted in the latter to advance to closing position (as is also necessary, especially where able as well as slidable mounting of the carriage itself due to the crowned rollers 13.

In order to provide means for temporarily holding the door 10 to substantially vertical suspension from the carriage 15, as is desirable once the door is sufficiently clear from doorway 7, so that thereupon the door may be easily ushed to the leftof Fig. 1 andso moved with t e carriage to the position shown in Fig. 2, the following parts, in addition to the handle 10a, are provided. A pendant chain loop 21 has its opposite ends anchored as at 22 (Fig. 3) to the upper exterior of the door near the opposite sides thereof; and -below such points of anchorage the chain passes over rollers 23 revolubly mounted on the arms 16 and also under rollers 24 revolubly mounted on the door exterior.

Thus, once the door 10 issuliciently clear from doorway 7, that is, when the Vupper part of the door is suiiiciently clear of the doorway, a single down-pull on the lowermost intermediate portion of chain 21 instantly throws the door and the carrying and hanger 4parts to the relative positions' shown inv Fig. 4, whereupon the chain is arranged under the handle 10 as shown in Fig. 2, and the door is securely held against movement of any kind relative to arms 16 or to the carriage 15 and so door and carriage may be slid easily back and forth toward and away from the doorway. According to the construction shown, it will be noted that the door 10 will not be suspended strictly in ajvertical plane asillustrated in Fig. 4, when the parts are arrangled as shown in Fig. 4, as the lower end of t e door will have a tendency to swing in under the elevated track 14. It is not deemed necessary here to suggest any particular means for holding door 10 exactlyin such a vertical plane; as it has been Jound a very simple and comparatively effortless matter to hold the door thus vertical while transferring the same from the position of Fig. 1 to that of Fig. 2 and vice versa.

The parts are disposed as in Fig. 2 for unloading the contents o'r' the freight car;

and when the car is emptied, door and car-4 riage are slid .back vto dispose the door in front of doorway 7, and then chain 2 1 is disengaged from handle 10, the door is manipulated relative to its various relatively movable suspension or hanger elements while being pushed into place deep in the recessed doorway at the bottom thereof, then is wholly pushed back into the doorway against frame structure 11, and finally the hinged strips 8 and 9 are closed in, in the order named, to clamp the door and the rips 8 into place.

It will be noted that an important feature of the invention isthat the sliding and suspension means are' always permanently connected to the door 10.

When, however, a freight car is to be loaded, the door 10 may be left in closed and clamped position, as means are provided for permitting loading under such circumstances, and most eiiicient and rapid loading.

In this connection door 10 is provided with a hingedly hung section 25 which may be swung up and away from the main portion of the door to establish an opening corresponding in outline toV said section near the top of door 10 and the freight car, and

' through which opening the grain or the like may be shovelled or shot into the car until the latter has received its predetermined load. When the car 1s so loaded, 'the section 25 is of course lowered to complete in this connection that any suitable locks may be employed as desired, at those points or elsewhere, and whether or not car-seals of the familiar type are employed.

Inasmuch as many changes could be made in the above construction, and many apparently widely different embodiments of my invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense. v

It will also be' understood that the language used in the following claims isintended `to cover all the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the invention which, as a matter of language, might said to fall therebetween. 1

I claim:

1. In a freight car door structure including a recessed doorway in a vertical wall of the car, an overhead horizontal track longer than the width of the doorway, a carriage slidable along and rockable laterally of the track, a plurality of hanger elements vertically suspended from theV carriage for swinging movements in a plane parallel to the plane of the doorway, a door pivotally suspended from the lower ends of said hanger elements thereby to permit, relative to the car, translational movements of the door in a given plane, swinging movements of the door toward and away from said plane, and rotational movements of the door 1n said. plane, and means for giving the door any or all of such movements at will, said means including a iiexible element having a central pendant loop portion movably suspended outside the door and having the terminal portions of the element operatively associated with the hangers and also with the door.

. 2. In a freight car door structure including a recessed doorway in a vertical -wall of 60 the car, an overhead horizontal track longer than the width of the doorway, a carria e slidable along and rockable laterally of t e track, a plurality of hanger, elements vertically suspended rom the carriage for swinging movements in a plane parallel to the plane of the doorway, a door pivotally suspended from the lower ends of said hanger elements thereby to permit, relative to the car, translationalmovements of the door in a given plane, swinging movements of the door toward and away from said plane, and rotational movements of the doon in said plane, and means for giving the door any r all of such movements at will, said means including a flexible element having a central pendant loop portion movably suspended outside the door and having the terminal portions of the element operatively Vassociated with the hangers ,and also with the@ door at a plurality of vertically spaced points.

KUsfiA ROPERT KOSKINEN. 

